Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/302

276 parents. Another medicine-man had to use his art to send them to sleep. At the time of the Jeraeil which I mentioned a few pages back, this man was the renowned Bunjil-daua-ngun mentioned later on, and his proceeding was as follows. Being paid by the youth with weapons, opossum rugs, and other things, he stuck his magical spear-thrower into the ground, slanting towards the camp of the parents, and with such an inclination that after a time it fell down. By its side he placed his Bulk, and at a little distance his Yertung, and beside it his Gumbart (nose-peg). He then sang his song, and when the spear-thrower fell down the charm was completed, and the parents were believed to be in a magical sleep. Tulaba, before mentioned, was the youth in this case, and might now run off with his sweet-heart, but only after a formality which shows that the final choice rested with her. Stealing round to the back of her parents' camp, in which she was sitting, he touched her with a long stick, and she being ready to run off, pulled the end as a signal. He then left, and the girl, having her bag (Batung) packed up, in fact, having her trousseau ready, flitted after him.

In the case which I am now describing, the proceedings were not yet over. After a time the old people, according to my informant Mr. Lucas, woke up, and finding their daughter gone, the old man summoned those of his kindred who were at the camp, to assist him in singing a song which should make the young man's legs become so weary that he would not be able to effect his escape. Finally, he took his spear-thrower, and, holding it loosely in his hand, made blows with it towards different points of the horizon. When it made a sound like a crack, it indicated the direction in which the runaways had gone.

On the occasion of the elopement, the man gave notice to his Brogan, that is, those who were initiated at the same Jeraeil as himself. They met him and the girl at some appointed place, and had the right of access to her. This right, having been exercised, is at an end. No sexual licence occurred in this tribe beyond this; except when